This Dark Alley Love Song
by starlight.moon.princess
Summary: Draco meets a red-haired dragon tamer at the age of fourteen, and it's the start of an obsession that lasts a lifetime. / DracoCharlie, and the far reaching effects of a simple smile.


**For the Big Sis/Lil'Sis Competition (word: wishes; word: glass; song: Stars from Les Miserables, specifically the lines _"Stars/In your multitudes/Scarce to be counted/Filling the darkness"_; quote: "I am half agony, half hope" -Jane Austen; phrase: knocked down and emotion: disbelief); the Hunger Games Challenge (emotion: arrogant; character: Charlie Weasley; pairing: Remus/Tonks; dialogue: "I...can't"; class: Charms); the If You Dare Challenge (153. Dragon's Breath); the Popular Song Competition (Never Gonna Leave This Bed) and the Legendary Creatures Competition (Hydra).**

_For Sam, whose love for this pairing is the only reason this fic exists. I hope I haven't bolloxed them up too badly love. Enjoy!_

* * *

Draco was leaving Charms when he first bumped into the man.

He was red-haired, stocky, and _bloody_ gorgeous.

He was also obviously a Weasley.

And the thing about Weasleys was that they weren't supposed to make Draco heart beat faster when he saw them, or make him think about all the filthy things – well, he wasn't going to think about that.

Then the red-haired man turned and flashed him a wide grin and said, "Hi," and it was all Draco could do not to tumble into something he wasn't ready to accept right then and there.

He later found out that the Weasley was a dragon tamer from Romania, at Hogwarts because of the Triwizard Tournament, and for a second Draco remembered his childhood obsession with his namesakes. It seemed that he was destined to be knocked down and bowled over by people associated with dragons even when he grown out of his fascination with the giant lizards.

Even after the man left, his face stayed on in Draco's mind. Utterly gorgeous, and extremely tempting, Charles Weasley threatened to be Draco's downfall even though the Slytherin had never even spoken to him.

* * *

For the next two years, the memory of the second eldest Weasley brother stayed with Draco, agonising him every time he looked at the stupid Weasels who were still at Hogwarts. Really, he would rather have had Charlie there than Ronald and Ginevra. At least the elder was nice to look at.

And yet every time he insulted the two banes of his existence, he couldn't help but wonder what stories they told their brother. There was no doubt that the dragon tamer thought that Draco was the devil incarnate if his siblings had exaggerated the tales of him as they tended to do.

For that reason, and that reason only, sometimes Draco contemplated stopping annoying the Weasels. But he would always come to his senses – no matter how much all of his wishes were centered around having Charlie Weasley for himself, there was nothing in the world that could make him act social with the man's siblings, not even the hope that doing so would give him a chance with Charlie.

* * *

His seventh year was hell on earth.

The Dark Lord and his posse of Death Eaters had taken over the Manor, terrorising his parents so much that his father never even thought to protest about the complete invasion of his home.

Draco lived under the threat of death each day, waiting for his life to finally shatter like the glass it had become after the second rise of the Dark Lord. He hardly ever had time to think about anything other than the Dark Lord and his followers, and the tasks he had to undertake to prove that he deserved to live.

But when he managed to sneak outside the Manor or Hogwarts late at night, he always stared up at the sky with their multitude of stars. Those stars had seen everything that had ever happened on the earth, from the original rise of the Dark Lord to his famous downfall. And he prayed and hoped that those stars would see the Dark Lord cast down once again, this time for good.

The endless sea of stars was beacon of hope to him; something that always reminded him of the one Weasley who had managed to elicit an emotion other than hatred in him. With all of his arrogance and bravado torn down by the tortures he had gone through at the hands of the people he once wanted to emulate, he could finally admit to himself that somewhere along the way, he had fallen in love with a man he knew nothing about.

And even though there was every chance that nothing at all could happen between the two of them, that he would never see Charlie Weasley again, the stars above him continued to twinkle in the hope that he was wrong.

* * *

He saw Charlie Weasley for the second time in his life after the Battle of Hogwarts.

The man was staring at the bodies of his brother, Professor Lupin and a woman with bright pink hair with an air of extreme sorrow and disbelief. His eyes were constantly moving from his brother to the woman, who was holding hands with Professor Lupin, as though unsure which death affected him the most.

Draco had waited for three years to meet him again, but even though he knew he might not get such an opportunity again, he moved away from the grief-stricken man. Not even he would interrupt someone so obviously heartbroken, even if he was in love with the person.

Besides, he doubted Charlie would take kindly to being disturbed by someone he probably didn't even know existed.

* * *

It was in Draco's final year at Hogwarts that it finally happened.

He had been let in under the strict condition that he would be monitored by a member of the staff while he was in or around Hogwarts. It was both for the safety of the other students from him and him from students who wanted to take revenge on him for the ordeals they had undergone for the past year.

He agreed. Of course he did, there was no way he was going to forsake taking his NEWTs. As far as he was concerned, being shadowed everywhere he went by Hagrid or Sinistra wasn't too much of a price to pay.

And then he found out who was actually going to be supervising him.

Charlie Weasley had returned to Hogwarts to help the short-staffed Professors. He was going to be helping Hagrid and McGonagall teaching, the former because he wanted to and the latter because she would need a lot of help teaching to make up for the time she would take adjusting to her new position as Headmistress.

But apart from all of that, Charles Septimus Weasley was also going to be the staff member in charge of making sure that nothing untoward took place around one Draco Lucius Malfoy.

When Draco heard the news, he resigned himself for a year of torture. He was never going to be able to tell his teacher how he had felt about without sounding like an odd stalker, but he was also going to be forced to deal with the man on at least a daily basis.

And he was right.

But what he hadn't gotten right was that Charlie was going to be his teacher. No, instead of treating him like a student, the man had gotten it inside his head that they were going to be the best of friends. This meant that it constant gorgeous smiles, and talks about his day.

It all came to a head the day before Hogwarts let out for Christmas. The two of them were in Charlie's little office, Charlie quizzing Draco on his holiday plans while Draco tried his hardest not to gawk at the older man openly.

Lately, it had become harder and harder to keep from being utterly obvious around Charlie, and Draco was terrified that he was going to do something that would make his feelings obvious.

"What's wrong Draco?" Charlie asked concernedly. "You're acting more mysterious than usual."

"Nothing," Draco murmured, trying his best not to stare at Charlie's lips.

Charlie looked at the blond-haired boy doubtfully. "Okay," he said even though he knew the boy opposite him was lying. He wanted to tell him that he could tell Charlie anything, but he already knew that the only thing that would come out of the other boy's lips was, "I can't." Draco would retreat into himself even more if he pushed, so the best thing he could do was continue talking and hope the other boy would decide to open up to him sometime soon.

For his part, Draco pretended to listen to the dragon tamer in front of him. He knew he couldn't keep up the charade of being unaffected by the red-head for too much longer, and he would prefer telling him how he felt on his own terms instead of breaking down and blurting out everything. Now all he had to do was gather up the courage…

"…So I was planning on meeting up with George…" Charlie continued with whatever he was saying. Draco stared at the man, knowing that he would never be able to gather more courage than he had at that moment.

He stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over his chair in the process.

Charlie stopped talking to look at the Slytherin. "Draco…?" he started as he stood up too.

Before Charlie could continue with his question, Draco walked up to him, looked him in the eye, and, gathering up every last bit of his courage and the hope that what he was about to do would be well received, kissed him straight on the mouth.

(Charlie took a few moments, but he kissed him back. But that's a different story altogether.)

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**I hope you guys liked this! Please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)  
**

**Also, cookies to anyone who gets the title reference :)**


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